Note 424 — PART VI.—ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS. (continued 3)

Dragendorff, Die chemische Werthbestimmung einiger starkwirkenden Droguen, St. Petersburg, 1874.

[425] These details are very necessary, as bearing on the question of the fatal dose of nux vomica, which Taylor tells us (Med. Jurisprud., i. 409) was of some importance in Reg. v. Wren, in which 47 grains were attempted to be given in milk. The fatal dose of nux vomica must be ruled by its alkaloidal content, which may be so low as 1 per cent., and as high as nearly 3 per cent. 30 grains have proved fatal (Taylor); if the powder in this instance was of the ordinary strength, the person died from less than a grain (·0648 grm.) of the united alkaloids.